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KING. O paradox! Black is. the badge of hell,

The hue of dungeons, and the scowla of night;
And beauty's crest becomes the heavens well.

BIRON. Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light.
O, if in black my lady's brows be deck'd,

It mourns, that painting, and usurping hair,
Should ravish doters with a false aspect;

And therefore is she born to make black fair.
Her favour turns the fashion of the days;

For native blood is counted painting now;
And therefore red, that would avoid dispraise,
Paints itself black to imitate her brow.

DUM. To look like her, are chimney-sweepers black.
LONG. And, since her time, are colliers counted bright.

KING. And Ethiops of their sweet complexion crack.

DUM. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is light.

BIRON. Your mistresses dare never come in rain,

For fear their colours should be wash'd away.
KING. T were good, yours did; for, sir, to tell you plain,
I'll find a fairer face not wash'd to-day.

BIRON. I'll prove her fair, or talk to doomsday here.
KING. No devil will fright thee then so much as she.
Dr. I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear,
LONG. Look, here's thy love: my foot and her face see,
BIRON. O, if the streets were paved with thine eyes,

Her feet were much too dainty for such tread!
DUM. O vile! then as she goes, what upward lies
The street should see as she walk'd over head.
KING. But what of this? Are we not all in love?
BIRON. O, nothing so sure; and thereby all forsworn.
KING. Then leave this chat; and, good Biron, now prove
Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn.

DUM. Ay, marry, there; -some flattery for this evil.
LONG. O, some authority how to proceed;

Some tricks, some quillets, how to cheat the devil.

[Showing his shoe.

The original copies have school of night. This reading is supported by Tieck, upon the construction that "black" is "the hue of dungeons and of the school of night"-school giving the notion of something dark, wearisome, and comfortless. Scowl-which is Theobald's correction-is not happy; but we have little doubt that the original reading is corrupt; and we do not approve of Tieck's construction. We have "the badge of hell,"-"the hue of dungeons,"-and we want some corresponding association with "night." Theobald guessed stole (robe)—which we believe is the right word. Mr. Dyce inclines to soil, giving a passage from Chapman:

"the soil of night

Sticks still upon the bosom of the air."

Quillet and quodlibet each signify a fallacious subtilty-what you please-an argument without foundation. Milton says "let not human quillets keep back divine authority."

VOL. I.

N

DUM. Some salve for perjury.
BIRON.
O, 't is more than need!
Have at you then, affection's men at arms:
Consider, what you first did swear unto ;-
To fast,-to study, -and to see no woman:-
Flat treason against the kingly state of youth.
Say, can you fast? your stomachs are too young;
And abstinence engenders maladies.

And where that you have vow'd to study, lords,
In that each of you hath forsworn his book:
Can you still dream, and pore, and thereon look?
For when would you, my lord, or you, or you,
Have found the ground of study's excellence,
Without the beauty of a woman's face?
From woman's eyes this doctrine I derive:
They are the ground, the books, the academes,

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The nimble spirits in the arteries;
As motion, and long-during action, tires
The sinewy vigour of the traveller.
Now, for not looking on a woman's face,
You have in that forsworn the use of eyes;
And study too, the causer of your vow:
For where is any author in the world,
Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?
Learning is but an adjunct to ourself,
And where we are, our learning likewise is.
Then, when ourselves we see in ladies' eyes,
With ourselves,-

Do we not likewise see our learning there?
O, we have made a vow to study, lords;
And in that vow we have forsworn our books;
For when would you, my liege, or you, or you 23,
In leaden contemplation, have found out
Such fiery numbers, as the prompting eyes
Of beauty's tutors have enrich'd you with?
Other slow arts entirely keep the brain;
And therefore finding barren practisers,
Scarce show a harvest of their heavy toil:
But love, first learned in a lady's eyes,
Lives not alone immured in the brain;
But with the motion of all elements,

Prisons. The original copies have poisons.

Courses as swift as thought in every power;
And gives to every power a double power,
Above their functions and their offices.
It adds a precious seeing to the eye;
A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind:
A lover's ear will hear the lowest sound,
When the suspicious head of theft is stopp'd:
Love's feeling is more soft, and sensible,
Than are the tender horns of cockled snails :
Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus gross
For valour, is not Love a Hercules,
Still climbing trees in the Hesperides?
Subtle as sphynx; as sweet, and musical,
As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair;
And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods
Makes heaven drowsy with the harmonya.

Never durst poet touch a pen to write,

in taste:

Until his ink were temper'd with Love's sighs.
O, then his lines would ravish savage ears,
And plant in tyrants mild humility.
From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:
They sparkle still the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That show, contain, and nourish all the world;
Else, none at all in aught proves excellent:
Then fools you were these women to forswear;
Or, keeping what is sworn, you will prove fools.
For wisdom's sake, a word that all men love;
Or for love's sake, a word that loves all men;
Or for men's sake, the authors of these women;
Or women's sake, by whom we men are men;
Let us once lose our oaths, to find ourselves,
Or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths:
It is religion to be thus forsworn:

For charity itself fulfils the law;

And who can sever love from charity?

KING. Saint Cupid, then! and, soldiers, to the field!
BIRON. Advance your standards, and upon them, lords;
Pell-mell, down with them! but be first advis'd,
In conflict that you get the sun of them.
LONG. Now to plain-dealing; lay these glozes by;
Shall we resolve to woo these girls of France?

• This fine passage has been mightily obscured by the commentators. The meaning appears to us so clear amidst the blaze of poetical beauty, that an explanation is scarcely wanted:-When love speaks, the responsive harmony of the voice of all the gods makes heaven drowsy.

KING. And win them too: therefore let us devise

Some entertainment for them in their tents.

BIRON. First, from the park let us conduct them thither;
Then, homeward, every man attach the hand

Of his fair mistress: in the afternoon

We will with some strange pastime solace them,
Such as the shortness of the time can shape;
For revels, dances, masks, and merry hours,
Forerun fair Love, strewing her way with flowers.
KING. Away, away! no time shall be omitted,

That will be time, and may by us be fitted.

BIRON. Allons! Allons!-Sow'd cockle reap'd no corn;
And justice always whirls in equal measure:
Light wenches may prove plagues to men forsworn;
If so, our copper buys no better treasure.

[Exeunt.

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HOL. Satis quod sufficit.

NATH. I praise God for you, sir: your reasons at dinner have been sharp and sententious; pleasant without scurrility, witty without affection, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and strange without heresy. I did converse this quondam day with a companion of the king's, who is intituled, nominated, or called, Don Adriano de Armado.

HOL. Novi hominem tanquam te: His humour is lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majestical, and his general

Affection-affectation.

Filed-polished. Old Skelton gives us the word in the precise meaning in which Shakspere

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